All is well on the pond

When we awoke this morning, at first glance, the pond was still. Over the entire glass-like surface there was not a ripple.

The single sailboat left in the pond had somehow morphed into two identical sailboats, though one was upside down. What a nice morning it was.

Then as we looked more closely at the water’s surface we did see little areas of tiny ripples. This was evidence of our usual cold-weather visitor, a visitor that brings gladness to our hearts - that pert, buoyant, little diving duck, and the bufflehead.

In ones and twos they were looking for their breakfast, the multitudes of minnows that populate this little fecund pond. They must have been successful as two or three herring gulls were trying to cadge the minnows that the buffleheads had to bring to the surface to swallow.

It is probably a good thing that our wild neighbors don’t think as we do. Imagine being faced with the prospect of cold raw fish for every meal, fish that you had to catch.

Fish once in a while, cooked, is quite good. We all know that. But raw fish for every meal of the day, for me, makes starvation not a bad option.

That sailboat sitting on the pond surface is a very lonely boat. Save for the multitudes of boats in the marina slips there is nary a boat in the pond. Said sailboat was acting a little restive in the calm.

When we first noticed, it was pointing north then ever so slowly it swung around to be pointing south. Apparently not content to sit quietly on its mooring it continued slowly moving around, back and forth as if signaling to its owner that perhaps it was time to get it out of the water and up on dry land.

We have seen a few black ducks around; they seem to prefer feeding in about six or eight inches of water, handy for getting the sea lettuce that carpets the little pond bottom. For the ducks, it is a carpet of food.

Again, a singular diet of sea lettuce sounds pretty bad, for the ducks it as life itself.

Back in the day, back in my hunting days, these birds were avidly hunted. In my case it was mostly hunting, not very often getting. These birds are wary birds, anything even slightly suspicious to their eyes and they are gone.

Many an early predawn (usually frigid) day I watched the sun come up over my artfully laid out decoys, shotgun at the ready and waited anxiously for the birds to arrive. Almost always something I’d overlooked was a clue to the birds to go somewhere else. Over the years I did get a few birds but never many.

And why did we sit there for hours and slowly congeal for this game? Black ducks are very tasty indeed, all dark meat that is scarcely diminished by occasionally biting down on a lead pellet.

Another very enjoyable part of any duck meal was going down to Eel Pond for a few dozen oysters. Now, I don’t know if you ever have tried oyster stuffing. If you haven’t, see if you can find a recipe and try it – you won’t be sorry.

Apropos of nothing, my wife Lynne had a most enjoyable, very heart-warming experience Thanksgiving Day. She had heard via daughter-in-law Laura about the goings-on, Thanksgiving Day, at the Brax Landing restaurant in Harwich.

Every Thanksgiving day, going way back, they provide free sit down turkey dinners with all the trimmings for those in need - they even deliver (Lynne said that there was a cadre of volunteers including some local officials on deck to pick up and deliver to the homes of folks who couldn’t make it in).

And to do all this good work they need volunteers to help with the organization, cooking and serving the full course dinners. It engendered a very ’feel-good, ‘top of the morning’ attitude in all the volunteers as it should have.

And of course that goes double for the generosity of the Brax Landing management team who basically closed their restaurant for this special day.

Giving back is one of the nicest feelings we will ever have. We have all experienced that feeling. We feel a renewed sense of gratitude for what we have; and we are reminded of the fact: ‘We have so much, let’s share it.’

Examples of this giving goes on all across this great country of ours, things we should hear about more often. The attitude of the media through long experience gives way to ‘if it bleeds it leads.’ It’s understandable to a degree but perhaps more attention should be given to the multitudes of good deeds that occur across our lives. Perhaps - “If it’s good it should be understood.”

Here it is a week later and the bouncy buffleheads are still stippling the ponds surface, the ‘loneliest boat’ is still swinging, still looking around the pond and the black ducks are still slurping the sea lettuce. All is well on the pond.

Dana Eldridge a former teacher, is the author of three books, "Once Upon Cape Cod," "Cape Cod Lucky" and "A Cape Cod Kinship: Two Centuries, Two Wars, Two Men." He lives in Orleans. Dana's View appears every other week.